Kristin Richardson
) |Row 6 title = Occupation(s) |Row 6 info = Dancer Actress Model Choreographer Photographer |Row 7 title = height |Row 7 info = 5' 9" (175 cm) |Row 8 title = Years Active |Row 8 info = 1992-present |Row 9 title = alma_mater |Row 9 info = Oklahoma City University |Row 10 title = spouse |Row 10 info = Kevin Richardson (6/17/2000) |Row 11 title = children |Row 11 info = Mason Richardson (b. 2007), Maxwell Richardson (b. 2013) }}Kristin Kay Richardson (née Willits, born August 4, 1970), is a dancer, actress, model and photographer. Early years Richardson was born on August 4, 1970 in Shawnee Mission, Kansas to John Willits, a chiropractor, and Susan Patton, car dealership. She has two siblings, older brother Brad Willits and older sister Tina Heut. Her parents divorced. Growing up, she spent her childhood , and could already ride a horse . When she was a kid, she enjoyed horseback riding, and was drawn to sports, such as playing , which led her to gymnastics in high school and being captain (co-captain of the gymnastics team, a leader, and a choreographer) of her team called the Cougarettes. "She was fun and funny," said gymnastics coach Janice Miller. "Kristin was real vivacious in high school." Kim Watts, who was co-captain of the team with Willits, said they spent a lot of time together. "We were in every activity under the sun in high school," she said. "She was always a captain, a leader, a main choreographer. At a young age, Kristin loved music and being fascinated with Madonna, always looking and dressed like her, but was the total opposite of "Material Girl" in high school. "She was real bubbly and friendly to everybody," Kim said. "She didn't care who you were. She was very popular, yet never stuck up." In her teens, she started her first dance class when she was a high school sophomore at age 15, but adored every minute of it and it was just a short time before she was working and training hard to catch up, participating as member of the school's Cougar Classic Drill team, and member of the cheerleading squad and participated as staff of her school paper, The Northwest Passage, at Shawnee Mission Northwest High School in Kansas, where she was also 1st runner-up for homecoming queen her senior year. Career Early career While in high school, Kristin worked at Worlds of Fun as a dancer and singer in the variety shows. After graduating from high school in 1988, she first attended the University of Kansas for one semester before she transferred to Oklahoma City University to study dance. She graduated from Oklahoma City University in 1992 with a Performing Arts degree in Classical and Jazz Dance. She then worked at Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, Virginia, during the summers while she was in college. After leaving Oklahoma, She eventually moved to Orlando to work at Walt Disney World in the Beauty and the Beast attraction where she played and danced as a maid and a jello-mold and also played Snow White in the Lion King show. That was where she met her future husband. 6 months after that, she worked on a Royal Odyssey cruise ship in the Mediterranean for 7 months to a year. Dancer Kristin auditioned for and was accepted to spend 2 years as a Radio City Rockette in New York. She toured with the Will Rogers Follies company across the United States and was on Broadway in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum with Nathan Lane, Whoopi Goldberg and David Alan Grier. After completing the workshop production of “Footloose”, Kristin decided to leave Broadway to pursue film and television roles in Los Angeles, electing not to continue with the show for its Broadway run. In 1999, Willits was also one of the six dancers in Cher's Believe tour. You can see her in "All Or Nothing", Cher's video clip which consists of different parts of Believe" tour. Acting career After her time on stage, Kristin made the transition to television acting on the Comedy Central show Viva Variety. In 1996, she appeared in the European version of the Backstreet Boys music video “I'll Never Break Your Heart” as her then-boyfriend's love interest. All in the while, she appeared in Will Smith’s Wild Wild West video in 1999 and in Everclear’s “Rock Star” video in 2001. When she returned to LA, she played her first role in Warner Brother’s “Rock Star” alongside Mark Wahlberg and Jennifer Aniston. Kristin has guest-starred on numerous shows such as Angel, Charmed, Supernatural, Joey, Cold Case, NYPD Blue, and CSI. Along with the rest of wives and the Backstreet Boys, Willits and her husband appeared on I Heart Nick Carter. Kristin was featured in the 2015 documentary Pushing Motherhood, in which she speaks openly about her and Kevin's struggles with fertility. Personal life Richardson has been married to Kevin Richardson since 2000. They met in the early 90's (1992) when they both worked at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Kristin was dancing in Beauty and the Beast as a jello-mold and a maid while playing the character of Snow White in "the Lion King" Show. "She was sitting’ down with some friends and, uh, a buddy of mine came up to me and said ‘You need to ‘introduce yourself to her’ so, evidently she’d been kinda checking’ me out so he kinda gave me the green light ‘cause I’m, I was a shy type a guy, can’t just go up and ask ladies out so I went and introduced myself and later on, a couple days later I asked her for her number and asked her if she was interested in going’ out." Kevin recalls. They began a relationship and dated on and off for about seven or eight years on the down low before they took their romance public. Kristin was also featured in one of the Backstreet Boys earliest videos "I'll Never Break Your Heart" and one of the dancers at the American Music Awards in 1999. Their first appearance together was at the 1999 MTV Video Music Awards premiered on September 9, 1999. Kevin went the old fashioned route and asked her father, John Willits, for Kristin's hand in marriage. It happened in Kansas City after a Backstreet Boys concert. Their engagement, along with Kevin's bandmate and cousin Brian Littrell's to Leighanne Wallace, was announced on MTV in February 2000, and the couple married on June 17, 2000, at The Cathedral Domain Camp and Conference Center in rural Lee County in eastern Kentucky. Kristin wore a beige wedding gown and walked barefoot on red rose pedals up to the altar. Kevin wore a suit and Versace sandals. Her twin nephews were ring-bearers, and her 1.5 year niece was the flower girl. There were 180 family and friends at the wedding. The ceremony was performed by Tim, Kevin's brother, while his other brother was the best man. The newlyweds spent their honeymoon in Italy. Together they have two sons: Mason Frey was born on July 3, 2007 at 4:56 a.m. and Maxwell Haze was born on July 10, 2013. Kristin was a founding member of her husband’s environment organization Just Within Reach. Gallery 996696310-673.jpg Gettyimages-451736755-1024x1024.jpg Gettyimages-74729017-1024x1024.jpg Gettyimages-111222863-1024x1024.jpg 32203127_617613711920981_5954724048528211968_n.jpg 44923578_486941478381025_5379278607892642505_n.jpg 46551284_339843026596000_57305011161338186_n.jpg 2c996e70909730648371cec2e0fb7f9d.jpg 58410121_350005208960021_47905477508371261_n.jpg 51852454 297990424471420 1844000567241107591 n.jpg 59375867_349284885771611_6591776812440254006_n.jpg 66866972_492694084827291_5023877823377772742_n.jpg 65858425_2402019416548618_3739840434525788553_n.jpg 62648634_348130269453813_1595451745293503614_n.jpg 68721273_833990130335739_5280013507404209325_n.jpg 71198430_163574078038071_1624555385293642247_n.jpg 78945618_972188049826617_6529188097873420096_n.jpg Filmography Other Facts Resume Movie * Man On The Moon 1999 as Showgirl * Forever Yours as Courtney * Ganges On The Hudson * Crossings 2000 as Sharon * Rockstar 2001 as Samantha * Shut up and Kiss me 2004 as Jessica * Laundry Night 2005 as Sydney * Jarhead 2005 as Stewardess * Final Move 2006 as Sarah Underhill * Anderson’s Cross 2007 as Step-mom Missy * Harpies 2007 as Cecilia * Soupernatural 2007 as Kelly * Boiler Maker 2008 as Trish Video * Barney Live – Barney Video, Marching Band * Comedy Central Show Viva Variety * I´ll never break your heart 1997 – European Version (Backstreet Boys) * All or Nothing 1999 – Cher * Believe Tour 1999 – HBO Concert (Cher) * Wild Wild West 1999 – Will Smith * Rockstar 2001 – Everclear Stage * I’m Here Because of my wife * Cher Tour 1999 – Dancer / Bungee * The Will Rogers Follies * West Side Story * Beauty And The Beast – Ensemble * Radio City Christmas Spectacular – Rockette * The Lion King Spectacular – Snow White Broadway * A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum – Geminae (one of the Courtesans) * Footloose – Ensemble TV Shows * Viva Variety – SS Squad * Malibu / CA as Kelly – 1999 * The Michael Richards Show as Lorrel Canyons – 2000 * Once and Again as Delancey – 2001 * Charmed as Darla – 2003 * Bravo (with Kevin and Krystal on “It Factor” – February 2003) * Angel as Reporter – 2003 * The Terry and Gaby Show – 2003 * Eve as Carmen (episode: “Ride or Die Chick” – May 2004) * Two and a Half Men as Tiffany – 2004 * Lost as Jessica – 2004 * NYPD Blue as Elizabeth Keenan – 2005 * Cold Case as Angie Parrington – 2005 * CSI: Crime Scene Investigation as Eva – 2005 * Supernatural as Jenny – 2005 * Out of Practice as Trisha – 2006 * Joey as Edie Philips – 2006 * Close to Home as DeeDee Bass – 2006 * E-ring as Princess Amelia – 2007 * CSI: Miami as Kate Lambert – 2007 * Without a Trace as Chelsea Keyes – 2009 * Criminal Minds as Yvonne Ashford – 2009 * CSI: NY as Sarah Hansen – 2010 * Numb3rs as Roxie Ray – 2010 * The Defenders as Jen – 2010 Commercials * GAP Commercial * 1-800-Collect as Roller girl * Miller Commercial * Bud Light Commercial as Birthday Girl Other * American Music Awards 1999 – Backstreet Boys Dancer “Everybody” Performance * World of Fun ( Kansas ) – Dancer and Singer * Bush Garden in Williamsburg, VA * Royal Odyssey – Cruise Ship Special Abilities Dance, Tumbling, Rollerblading, Aerobics, Juggling, Ball Walking, Diving, Water Skiing, Snow Boarding, Bartending, Photography, Bungee acrobat Category:Backstreet Wives Category:Families